Rover K engine
| Rover K Series | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Overview | |
| Manufacturer |
Rover Group MG Rover Group/Powertrain Ltd |
| Production | 1988-2005 (K-Series) |
| Combustion chamber | |
| Configuration | Straight-4 |
| Displacement | 1,120 cc (68 cu in) to 1,796 cc (109.6 cu in) |
| Cylinder block alloy | cast Aluminium |
| Cylinder head alloy | cast Aluminium |
| Valvetrain | SOHC and DOHC |
| Combustion | |
| Fuel system | Carburetor or Rover MEMS |
| Fuel type | petrol |
| Cooling system | water-cooled |
| Chronology | |
| Predecessor | |
| Successor | SAIC Kavachi Engine |
The K-Series engine is a series of engines built by Powertrain Ltd, a sister company of MG Rover. The engine was built in two forms: a straight-four cylinder, available with SOHC and DOHC, ranging from 1.1 litres to 1.8 litres. Although similar in name, the later introduced KV6 is not related.
The K-Series was introduced in 1988 by Rover Group as a powerplant for the Rover 200 car. It was the second volume-production implementation of the low-pressure sand-casting (or LPS) technique in a new plant sited between East Works and Cofton Hackett. (The first volume application of the LPS process had been for the M-16 cylinder head, produced in South Works, adjacent to the former forge). The LPS process pumped liquid aluminium into a chemically-bonded sand mould from below. This reduced oxide inclusions and gave a casting yield of around 90%, compared with 60% for more conventional gravity casting processes. The process avoided many of the inherent problems of casting aluminium components and consequently permitted lower casting wall thickness and higher strength-to-weight ratios. However, the process required the use of heat-treated LM25 material which gave the engines a reputation for being fragile. An engine overheat would often result in the material becoming annealed and rendering the components scrap. The aluminium engine blocks were fitted with spun-cast iron cylinder liners that were initially manufactured by GKN's Sheepbridge Stokes of Chesterfield, but these were replaced by liners made by Goetze after some seminal research conducted by Charles Bernstein at Longbridge, which proved influential even to Ducati for their race engines. Unfortunately a large number of aftermarket engines, the so-called "VHPD"s", were built with the old substandard GKNs by Minister, Lotus and PTP well after the Goetze liner's introduction to the production line in 2000.
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